I am relatively new to gaming however I had enjoyed reading a lot from this blog so first thing is thanks for the help! I have 1 slann and normally use a couple of skink priests. I have mostly used lore of heavens/light as have played chaos demons. I have recently played empire and will be playing again and used lore of fire but to little effect if I am honest. I will be playing high elves soon also and unsure which lore to run against them. I like the heavens however what else will work against empire? Thanks P.s I have a well ranged army that is constantly growing!
High elves are generally glass hammers - the elite infantry (white lions & swordmasters) are lethal in hand to hand against unbuffed lizards since they have high S, WS and re-roll misses to hit thanks to army wide ASF but they have low armour saves and toughness 3. Their core troops are likely to be missile troops that are much easier to beat in close combat since they are only S3/T3 and at best have a 5+ save. The two approaches are to try and buff your own troops and get into combat (life or light) or to damage their elites from a distance (fire, light). Sallies are the most effective unit in the lizzie army and your casting should be used to support them in attacking the elite blocks (a couple templates on a horde will dramatically reduce their effectiveness and numbers). Empire - most Empire players are going the all cav version these days since their infantry is garbage IMHO - about the equivalent of clan rats although halberds/great weapons are available. Against their infantry, saurus and TG will do extremely well even when not buffed at all. The cavalry is another matter since it is all 1+ save and the monstrous cav is very effective in grinding thanks to the mount. Throw in the mobile & unbreakable cannon/chariot called a stank (10 wounds) and you have a very fast and hard hitting army that will be charging on turn 2 at the latest. The challenge is getting through the 1+ save in hand to hand - saurus can hold them up after a charge with steadfast but won't inflict many wounds since they are relying on the knights rolling 1s on the armour saves. TG are more effective, especially when armed with the AP banner but will still get hurt unless buffed. While metal may seem an obvious choice, it is quite limited and I would likely go with light or life again although shadow can work well (3 great hexes, two direct damage are good and the augment removes the need to be worried about armour saves with S8/9). The general strategy is to try and keep your own troops alive and winning combat with magic rather than inflicting damage and to win by static combat resolution and running down the cavalry when it breaks.
Thanks! I have not looked into shadows as much and it looks great. I am considering fielding tetto'eko to get the advantages of the lore of heavens however he is a bit costly in comparison to the pair of skink priests that I normally use. The monstrous cavalry caused havoc against my saurus horde in the last game! Shadow should make a couple of changes I think! Cheers for the help
Ogres should do just fine against Empire. The ironblaster can take care of the stank and chicken-knights while a large block of irongutz can lay a pretty good beating on the knights. Even ogre shooting from leadbelchers can help out thanks to the volume of fire and -2 to the AS. Worst case, add a couple units of gnoblars to use as deflectors/delays and you should be fine.
Lore of life is always good vs ogres, light lol's at elves ASF(plus adds some pit of shades, purple sun, etc. protection) also I've found death works well vs ogres (sorry 350 point tyrant)
Here are what i recommend Elves - Heavens and Life are both strong here Empire - Metal ( or heavens if its a gun line) Ogres - shadow life light metal and death all have good stuff, really its how you want to play your army
I agree. However, there is no need to take Heavens on a Slann because that's what you have Skink Priests for. Light, I think, may be effective against HE because Elves rely on their high WS and I and their ASF, they rely on the insane number of times they hit you. However, Life is also good as mentioned by the quoted but Light spells can target lots of units.
Thanks for the good advice, I have used light the most out of the loves. I have found tha I can get a lot of spells off to buff up my units but the buffs I find do not often make a huge amount of difference. For example shadows are more expensive but the spells I find are much more heavy hitting. I am going up against HE for the first time soon in a 3k battle, is the general consensus that light is the most useful? Against them?
honestly against high elves most lores work, more important in my expierience is takeing the becalming cogitation to shut down their magic, life, light, and shadow all work well (metal if you run a mostly sknk army) cheers!
Will the HE be using the 7th ed army book or 8th? If it's 8th, be sure to have a lore that has at least one spell that doesn't cause "magic attacks" (such as Life/Dwellers Below) just in case they take the new Banner of the World Dragon and one unit becomes nearly immune (2+ ward save) to all magic attacks (magic attacks include miscast hits, ranged and close combat attacks from magic weapons and certain types of units that have magic attacks, such as anything skaven, most things Dwarf and pretty much all Deamons).
Yep. Banner of the World Dragon has been reworked in 8th to give a 2+ ward save against all "magic attacks". Thankfully it only affects the unit the banner is in and not the whole army. As long as you aren't using magic attacks against the unit, it shouldn't affect you much. Thankfully an attribute test isn't considered an "attack".
We have better replies to the banner of the world dragon than most armies do. Tie up the unit for a turn or two with speed bump units while you shoot with salamanders and skinks, then bring in the saurus or temple guard with buffs/hexes. No magic attacks required. If you have Final transmutation / Dwellers Below even better. Also, I agree with Kharn, becalming cogitation is great in this matchup.
I'd cast my vote for either light or life. fire isn't bad with the lower casting costs and low T on the elves though, but it is a mediocre lore IMHO.